In workflow type applications that have multiple stages, or activities, it is common that a particular processing stage of the workflow, i.e., a particular activity, depends on data that has been produced at any of the earlier processing stages or activities. Workflow applications, or workflow instances, typically require that data be passed from one stage, step, or activity, to another in a sequential manner. Identifying a linkage for passing the data is commonly referred to as “data binding.” In a typical workflow instance the data binding requires knowledge of system names to be used for the binding of data components to activities within a workflow application. Often, at a given processing stage, the designer of the application or the application user must instruct the workflow application as to what the input document or documents to be processed at this stage are. A novice application user or application designer, when setting up the workflow application, may not be sufficiently cognizant of the requisite system names for effective data binding, and the challenges to the user grow as the binding task is further complicated by increasing complex data structures.